Nokia launches new 8110 4g with KaiOS

Over the weekend, Nokia released a new feature phone, the 8110 4G – a re-imagining of the phone used in The Matrix. I really like the design of this phone, and at a price of just â‚¬79, it looks like a steal. The most interesting part of the phone, other than its lovely design, is the operating system it runs. It’s called KaiOS, a distant cousin to Firefox OS.

KaiOS is not Firefox OS. Our platform is based on the original Mozilla project. We even have people from the original Mozilla team in our engineering and UX departments. But KaiOS has been developed into something much more robust and expanded than the original Firefox OS. Think of us as distant cousins, not siblings nor children.

It’s a HTML5-based operating system already in use in a whole bunch of phones today – they claim it’s already on 30 million phones in India and North America – and on the 8110 4G, it has that traditional, classic Nokia design with a modern touch. I’m really curious to see just how powerful or expandable (maybe even hackable?) this feature phone platform is.

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[S]Super exciting, but ironically, not a replacement for my 2009(?) Sony Ericsson Elm: 5 MP camera, and GPS + Google Maps (J2ME) cannot be understated for critical requirements for a dumb-phone. I’d _love_ to have one of these new Nokia devices, but it’s got to have a GPS first and foremost.[/S]

My bad, checked the specs on the site, and it looks like it has GPS! Now need to find out about a Google Maps solution.

It’s not bargain at all. Less money will get you a very decent Android phone like the Moto C or Huawei Y5. I can get a prepaid Android phone with better hardware for literally 1/4 the price at the supermarket.

No, if you use it as a feature phone, it will suuuuuuuck. Use a feature phone, notice how everything is fast as hell. They all used to be this fast. I get smart phones being slow every now and then as the phone part isn’t the most important part. But if it were, I wouldn’t use it.

You know what the lag was on a digital tone princess phone of the 1970’s for dialing? 0 ms. Press a button, tone issued on the wire. We’ve really regressed in terms of phone usability, but no one really cares because we aren’t phoning as much.

Nope, sorry. I got an Alcatel Flint from Cricket when my last phone died, cost a whole $20 for a factory refurb, $50 for a new one. it has a quad core, 1.5Gb of RAM, 5.5 inch screen, 8MP camera. Hell it even plays 3D games, not that I care as I hate touch controls.

So…yeah $79? Not a deal, not when you can get a really decent Android for less.

Firstly: Well done to HMG / Nokia Mobile for making a splash with something that’s not a glass rectangle. Even if these moves are more than a little cynical (far less so with the 8110 4G than with the 3310 2G, though), at least the industry is reminded there’s space for an iota of innovation and fun.

But as to the phone as a practical proposition…

The bad:

– Its longer and thicker than my Blackberry Q5, and the same weight.

– How are we meant to fit a banana in our pocket? Is it designed for people with particularly curvy hips? I suppose it has to be tried to know. But surely a very slight bend would be enough let it ‘helicopter’ on a table, which is of course very important…

– 2MP is too poor to even photo an A4 page of print and read the text.

– How do the buttons feel? The 3310 had worse button feel than the Nokia 105 and other cheapies, so lets hope they don’t pull another stunt like that, on the cynical assumption that all the excitable fools who bought the 3310 hadn’t used a feature phone for ten years so wouldn’t know the difference.

– Â£70 is a lot if its just a feature phone. Nokia 105 costs Â£8.

However all that could be worth it…

– Will the browser be significantly better than Opera Mini; i.e. a cut down but ‘real’ browser? Which browser engine is it?

– What is the nature of this app store? Can we sideload?

– How long before someone hacks it and I can run Mutt on it? Yes, I know that’s ridiculous. But still.

– Does it do a good job of combining the stripped down S30 UI and menu layout (S40 wasn’t quite the same, to my mind) with KaiOS? In effect, will this be a return to muscle memory phone UIs that can also compete, even slightly, on features?

Will the browser be significantly better than Opera Mini; i.e. a cut down but ‘real’ browser?

I wouldn’t call Opera Mini worse, just different. Sometimes even better… (when a phone has ~small screen, with page layout reordering; or when phone has little RAM and processing power; or when you want to save on data charges)

I mostly don’t need a phone, but when needed I want people to able to call me, so a dumbphone is good enough.

For me, there is absolutely no reason to buy a smartphone which needs to be recharged every couple of days (if you are lucky).

I do have an old smartphone (without sim inserted) running lineageos and needs to be plugged in about once, maybe twice a week and it connects to the wifi when I need to refresh geocaches (that’s what I use it for in combination with my garmin gps).

If I can find a ‘dumpphone’ that does 2 weeks on a charge, but has the option to set up a hotspot, it would be great for me.

Would a pay much for it? No, because I only feel the need for that about once or twice a year!